Era el Día de San Francisco de Asís and toda la familia was sitting outside, teniendo un picnic under the trees. Since que era un holy day and grampo loved any saint who took care of animales, he always honraba este día en particular. Grama Cuca was rosteando unos chiles verdes on the grill. The family would then wrap them up en una tortilla and eat them con un hotdog.

Grampo Caralampio was trying to teach Canutito how to jugar a la navajita. He would bounce the open-bladed pocket knife first off his fingers, hands, elbows, shoulders and finally his knees. Canutito tried to watch his dedos, manos, codos and hombros con la navajita sticking into the soft ground after every throw. Suddenly Grampo Caralampio called out to Grama Cuca: "¿Ei, Cuca, está listo el loche?"

He was really hungry pero Grama Cuca didn't answer. He called out to her again: "¿Ei, Cuca, está listo el loche?" Again Grama Cuca didn't answer.

"I don't think que Grama Cuca can hear you, grampo," Canutito said to him.

"Sí, m'hijo," Grampo Caralampio replied. "Tu grama has become muy sorda."

"Why do you think que mi grama is going deaf, grampo?" Canutito asked him.

"Cada vez que I talk to her, como que she ignores me. "Cada vez que I talk to her about agarrando un hearing aid, she says que no quiere uno. She says que no necesita anything. I know que she pretends to hear todo pero she fakes understanding a lot de lo que I tell her." Canutito sat quietly thinking por un momento and then he got up y he wandered over to where Grama Cuca was roasting chile.

"Grama," he said softly to her. No answer. "Grama," he said again, this time a little louder. Again nada. Canutito then tapped her en el shoulder y Grama Cuca pegó un bolido. "Did I startle you, grama?" Canutito asked when he saw her jump away suddenly.

"Ay, m'hijo," Grama Cuca scolded him. "You shouldn't go about sneaking up on people like that. You almost gave me un ataque de corazón."

"I did call you, grama-twice," Canutito said evenly to her. "Pero como que you couldn't hear me. I think que maybe possibly you should think de comprar un hearing aid."

"No!" Grama Cuca returned sharply. "Yo oigo bien. I don't need no pinche hearing aid.

"Pero grama," he little boy insisted. "Just think de todo lo que you are not hearing. You are retreating into your own little mundo and making it hard on everybody who wants to say algo a Usted. Grama Cuca put down el pot holder que she was using to turn the roasted green chile. She sat toda pensativa en el zacate.

"Dices bien, m'hijo," she began. "It's been unas cuantas semanas que I have been noticing que I don't hear tan bien como antes. I seem to hear un buzzing in my ear y este zumbido is driving me loca. That other day fui al doctor and he asked me to take off my glasses. Él me dijo: 'Quítese los lentes,' but I thought he said, 'Quítese los dientes' and so I put my false teeth on la mesa y he freaked out.

Pero the reason que I am afraid de agarrar un hearing aid es porque once when I was en la iglesia waiting for Mass to begin I could hearing something ringing. It turned out to be el hearing aid de Mana Pascuala who was sitting dos pews behind me. Her battery was dying out, causing un high-pitch to echo por dónde quiera."

"It's fine to have un hearing aid, grama," Canutito said to her. Muchas personas have them.

"The other day," Grama Cuca continued, "when Mana Pascuala was in church, Mana Carlota came in. Ella también usa un hearing aid. Pues when las dos mujeres hugged each other, the buzzing de los dos hearing aids amplified tan fuerte que it sounded como que they were matando gatos."

"Ay, grama," Canutito said to her, "aging is normal. Hearing loss is normal. There is no shame in wearing hearing aids. Es lo mismo como usando glasses as you get older. And if you have good batteries en los hearing aids, no one even notices que you have them on.

Grama Cuca thought for a minute. "Dices bien, m'hijo,' she said. "Mañana voy al médico y agarrar un check-up..."

¿Le gustaría compartir sus propias anécdotas o comentar con Torres sobre esta columna? Envíele un correo electrónico a lartor@unm.edu.